Robert E. Clarke, Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Electrical Engineering
The Robert E. Clarke Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Electrical Engineering was established in 2005 by UTSA alumni Dr. Loretta J. Clarke ’87, ’90 and Mr. Jeffrey W. Clarke ’86. As a result of the couple’s positive experience as UTSA students, this is the first of four faculty positions the couple has endowed for the university.
Ruyan Guo, Ph.D.
Robert E. Clarke, Jr. Distinguished Professorship in Electrical Engineering
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ruyan Guo is an active researcher and educator at the forefront of materials science and electronic device engineering. She co-directs UTSA’s Multifunctional Electronic Materials and Devices Research Lab (MeMDRL), where she leads interdisciplinary research on the structure-property relations of ferroelectric, piezoelectric, pyroelectric, dielectric, and multiferroic ceramics, crystals, and composites. These materials are pivotal for microelectronic applications such as sensors, actuators, modulators, tunable devices, and energy converters.
Over the years, Guo, as a PI or a Co-PI, directed many competitive research projects awarded or sponsored by NSF, ONR, ARO, AFSOR, DARPA, the State of Texas and industries. She has authored or co-authored over 500 technical publications and edited or co-edited more than 35 transaction books and professional proceedings volumes. Her contributions to understanding polarization phenomena in ferroelectric solid-solution systems are well regarded in the research community. Her distinguished scientific, technical, or engineering achievements in ceramics were recognized by the American Ceramic Society’s John Jeppson Award in 2023. Additionally, her innovative teamwork on multiferroic nanocomposites holds the Guinness World Record for the "Smallest Medical Robot."
Guo has advised over 100 graduate students, guiding them to complete their master’s/doctoral research. She received multiple UTSA Innovation Awards and was honored by the 2023 UTSA Graduate School Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award.
Guo has given many invited talks at domestic and international conferences. She has also organized numerous scientific meetings under the auspices of SPIE, ACerS, IEEE, and IUPUP. She served as Electronic Division Chair of ACerS, Photonics Applications Track Chair of SPIE, and AdCom member of IEEE-UFFC. She was a member of the Advisory Board of PRF-ACS and recently Board of Directors of ACerS. She also serves/served on the editorial boards of several international journals, including Ferroelectrics Letters, Electroceramics, Electronic Components and Materials, Phase Transitions, and Micromachines. Recently, Guo served as an NSF Program Director in the Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division of the Directorate for Engineering.
Guo is recognized as a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineers (SPIE), the American Ceramic Society (ACerS), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and she is an Academy Member of the World Academy of Ceramics (WAC).
Guo currently serves as the Director of UTSA’s Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Advanced Materials Engineering (MS-MatE) with concentrations encompassing electronics, biomedical and semiconductor materials engineering. She served as interim department chair of the UTSA Electrical and Computer Engineering Department from 2010-2012.
Guo earned her Ph.D. in Solid State Science at the Pennsylvania State University in 1990, and her M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University in 1984 and 1982, respectively. Before joining the UTSA faculty in 2007, Guo was a tenured professor of Electrical Engineering at Penn State University.
